


Till the end of my days

by neighborhoodwitch



Series: Till the end of our days [1]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, M/M, No Dialogue, no happy ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-12
Updated: 2019-01-12
Packaged: 2019-10-09 00:24:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17396606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neighborhoodwitch/pseuds/neighborhoodwitch
Summary: Merlin made a promise once, for the rest of his life he lived by that promise no matter what happened





	Till the end of my days

Oh he wished he could have had a camera all those years ago, back when anything more than steel had been a wild dream. Back when he was nothing more than a person. Now he knows he is not a person and he never was, but how he wishes he had pictures of his wedding day. 

His vows to Arthur had been his confession, his truth that only he understood. They had stood there in Pendragon red in front of the kingdom swearing and stand by each other and by the kingdom forever. “I promise, Arthur, I promise I will love you till the end of my days’ He said it as tradition and Arthur had repeated it back to him, later he had laughed because of course he would love Merlin until they died. ‘Of course I will still love you when we are old and grey and too tired to do much other than love eachother’ it had been so poetic Merlin had melted and forgotten the truth his words carried. So much heavier than anyone could ever fathom. 

He promised to love Arthur till the end of his days, he had kept that promise no matter what happened. When he fled the walls of the citadel he remembered his vows. ‘I will love you till the end of my days.’ When he got the news Arthur had died years later, grey, old, and alone Merlin remembered his vows. The words ‘I will love you till the end of my days’ haunted him now as he looked down at his hands. Calloused from work but skin still smooth as silk because the end of his days were something his people could not imagine. 

‘I will love you till the end of my days’ he promised the burning castle he had shared with his king once. Camelot had fallen and he had done nothing to stop it, even when the hopeful and fool hearted reached out of him he let the stone walls fall. Then, he let the burnt shell that remained crumble to dust in the hands of time. 

Everything he had ever loved followed that pattern. All beautiful things turn to dust at the hands of time. Someone said that to him once, of maybe he thought of it himself? He just knew it was true, all beautiful things left the world but he did not. Merlin would never leave, Emrys would never leave because he was not beautiful. Merlin had left, he had died only a year after he made that promise. ‘I will love you till the end of my days.’ Merlin had died but Emrys remained, he was twisted and broken and his soul that was once touched with light was at constant war with the darkness seizing him. Everything around him rose and fell and he did nothing but watch, everytime something burned every time an empire fell he remembered the promise he had once made. 

‘I promise, Arthur, I promise I will love you till the end of my days’

The world turned to dust around him, floating in fandom breezes of the wasteland he now walked. All beautiful things leave this world, it is poison. It infects every blessing the gods have given in and leeches everything from them, the will the soul the life, everything must turn to dust. Except for him. 

Looking over the ocean he watched an orange sunset all alone. “I promise, Arthur, I promise I will love you till the end of my days.” His mouth moved but almost no sound came out, he couldn’t remember the last time he had spoken. 

“Till the end of my days.” As he whispered the vow he had made thousands of years ago to the wind the silk skin finally started to wrinkle and the youthful eyes finally darkened with age until Emrys crumbled to dust, and Merlin’s days had finally ended with his only promise on his lips.

**Author's Note:**

> So I will explain it. Merlin and Arthur got married and Arthur didn’t know about his powers or anything so when Merlin said his vows he was pretty much confessing that he would live forever. A year later Arthur found out the truth and Merlin fled Camelot and never returned so he walked the earth alone but never forgot his promise to Arthur until he finally died in what can be considered a post apocalyptic world where he is the only thing left.


End file.
